Efficiency of Software Development after Improvements in Requirements Engineering

Abstract

In the past decade multiple challenges arose from the method of software development [4, 4]. As described by Davenport, the development process needs an overhaul [4, 4]. Different disciplines, like project management, requirements engineering, the development of code or quality assurance have been investigated intensively, in order to improve the productivity of development. To obtain valid results, the overhaul needs to start with the refactoring of the right process at first. Often, it is sensible to start with such processes, which operate at the interface to the customer, because they are perhaps the most critical to an organization's success [3, 270 – 271]. Mainly, software development consists of four sub processes: requirements engineering, development, quality assurance and delivery. Requirements engineering and delivery operate on the interface to the customers. Because of the fact that the analysis of requirements is groundbreaking, we select this process as the starting point of a process innovation initiative. We analyse the impact of requirements engineering in KANBAN development processes. Special emphasis is put on the productivity of the overall development process, after a refactoring of requirements engineering.